Government should subsidise job shares, says Sir Richard Branson

The government should subsidise job sharing in order to help lower unemployment, Sir Richard Branson has claimed.

The Virgin Media tycoon believes employers would be keen to allow employees replace full-time jobs with two part-time ones as long as it didn’t cost them more cash, which it generally does at the moment.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he claimed that subsidising the companies willing to create job-share opportunities would create thousands of additional jobs in London and across the UK.

He said: “I have written to the Prime Minister to say if you can take a little bit of money out of the dole money and put it towards encouraging companies to allow anybody to go part time or job share if they want to that will create tens of thousands of new jobs.

“At the moment companies are reluctant to allow it to happen because of the cost. It would help the companies, the people out of work and the country.”

Branson is also keen to see the government offer more support to the country’s aspiring entrepreneurs. Fresh Business Thinking report that he also called for ‘student loans’ to be offered to those hoping to start their own business as well as those attending university.